Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a terminal device provided with an image pick-up element that performs line exposure of a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Image Sensor) sensor, and an imaging method for the terminal device.
Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets are examples of devices that are adapted to display an image on a display panel disposed thereon the device.
Conventionally, when displaying images on such devices, the preview mode depicts the image captured by an image pick-up element of the device. The raw image data (hereinafter referred to as simply as raw data) captured by the pick-up element is not preserved (saved) in a memory module but rather directly transferred to the display unit of the device. In such scenarios, it is not uncommon for the resolution of the display unit to be lower than the resolution of the raw data captured by the image pick-up element. Thus a process commonly referred to as “thinning-out” is performed while displaying an image on the display screen, wherein the pixels of the raw data captured by the pick up element are reduced in resolution (in the row and/or column direction) and outputted to the display unit.
Commonly used functions with such devices are Auto Exposure (AE), Auto White Balance (AWB), Auto Focus (AF) and the like. While executing such functions, it is desirable to employ a control unit within the device that is configured to generate statistical data from the raw data captured by the image pick-up element in a fast manner. However, when the generation and transfer of raw data for a statistical data generation occurs in a certain time period (wherein the generation and transfer of the raw data occurs from the image pick-up element to the display unit), the response speed of a control loop cannot be made faster than the time-period. Note that if the thinning rate of the raw data transferred to a control unit from the image pickup element is made higher, a higher frame rate and a higher speed of operation for the control loop can be achieved. However, in doing so, the resolution of the image displayed on the display becomes very low.
Accordingly, the objective of the present disclosure is to achieve at least two different frame rates while ensuring that the resolution of the image is not compromised.